Imagine

It was this night, thirty years ago, that the world learned of John Lennon’s death. I heard the news from the unlikely source of Howard Cosell while watching the Pats-Dolphins game on Monday Night Football. Just three days removed from my 17th birthday, the news made no sense to me. A musician gunned down on the streets of New York City? Assassinated? I thought that shit was reserved for presidents and other world leaders?

Lennon had just released his Double Fantasy album a few weeks earlier after five years of musical silence. It included songs that were vintage John Lennon such as Woman, Beautiful Boy and Watching the Wheels. My favorite cut, (Just Like) Starting Over, the first track on the album, suggested the ex-Beatle was back in the music business to stay after his five year hiatus to help raise his son, Sean. But it wasn’t meant to be.

I went to a tribute in Boston…maybe at City Hall Plaza, I can’t remember…and was amazed at the number of hollow-eyed fans who gathered to listen to Give Peace A Chance blasting over the loud-speakers. Most of them were probably as stoned as I was. A week later, at my first Springsteen concert, Bruce halted the show and paid tribute to Lennon…my memory is failing but I think they played a recording of “Imagine.” Early in 1981, my senior class voted Imagine as our prom song (I voted for Seger’s Famous Final Scene, for the record).

Hard to believe it’s been thirty years. I can’t help but wonder what he would have accomplished had he lived, musically and otherwise. It’s the picture below that haunts me most. I actually still have the grainy black-and-white original I cut out of the Globe so many years ago: Lennon signing an autograph for the man who would soon-after end his life…

I still am a huge Beatles fan having listend to the Fab Four from the beginning of them becoming a worldwide sensation. My older brother and sister are responsible for my Beatlemania since I was just a toddler and they weaned me on them. I believe just like other "where were you" events i.e. JFK, King, Hendrix, Morrison, Joplin... the murder of John is the same with millions of people. John remains until this day an icon on many levels. I do miss him and will always wonder what more he could've accomplished not just musically but as a man, a human and an activist.

I was a bratty middle school student at the time. I remember coming home and my Mom met me at the door with the news. I gave her attitude and told her I didn't care. These days, I have Beatles posters in my apartment and a Beatles license plate on my car. I fucking care now...

I was a bratty middle school student at the time. I remember coming home and my Mom met me at the door with the news. I gave her attitude and told her I didn't care. These days, I have Beatles posters in my apartment and a Beatles license plate on my car. I fucking care now...

Great job Denton. I was 16 and also heard the news from Howard Cosell. I believe it was one of the rare times the Patriots played on MNF because the usually sucked. I wasn't a huge Beatles fan at that point, more of a Who and Stones fan, but it just seemed inconceivable that someone would kill a guy like him. It was very confusing, even for moron teenager.

Great job Denton. I was 16 and also heard the news from Howard Cosell. I believe it was one of the rare times the Patriots played on MNF because the usually sucked. I wasn't a huge Beatles fan at that point, more of a Who and Stones fan, but it just seemed inconceivable that someone would kill a guy like him. It was very confusing, even for moron teenager.

I am a huge Beatles fan. I fell in love with them when I was ten and my sister bought a Greatest hits cassette. Well, I kind of stole the tape and went on to collect all of their albums.

It's a unique thing for me because I wasn't alive when the Beatles were around. John Lennon was killed before I was born. But he was always my Beatle. I felt a weird connection with him. As a ten year old kid, I would talk to him out loud at night after I said my prayers.

He did and still does mean a lot to a lot of people. Thank you so much, John. I'll be heading to Strawberry Fields when I am in NYC in a few weeks.

Growing up on the Beatles because my older brother listened to them from day 1....I grew to love Lennon even more.I was 22, single parent and in college and working....it was all we talked about at work and college. Still hard to wrap my mind around the incident.

I was able to finally visit the Imagine Strawberry Fields and The Dakota on my trip after 9-11...visited Ground Zero and a fire station as well.Was sort of surreal to visit Imagine after seeing Ground Zero....

Growing up on the Beatles because my older brother listened to them from day 1....I grew to love Lennon even more.I was 22, single parent and in college and working....it was all we talked about at work and college. Still hard to wrap my mind around the incident.

I was able to finally visit the Imagine Strawberry Fields and The Dakota on my trip after 9-11...visited Ground Zero and a fire station as well.Was sort of surreal to visit Imagine after seeing Ground Zero....